Opinion: Can’t see yourself voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? You have four options

Now is the summer of our discontent. The conventions are over, the campaigns have hit the ground running, and we, the people, are left with the same two, deeply flawed presidential candidates we had before. What’s a concerned citizen to do?

Americans have essentially four options when it comes time to elect a new president in November:

1. Vote your party.

Many people refer to themselves, sometimes apologetically, as “a longtime Democrat” or “a loyal Republican,” as if the preference is genetically determined or instilled by one’s parents at the dinner table.

To identify with a political party today is to identify with a work in progress. Party positions have shifted over the years and are shifting again. In the 1860s, the pro-slavery South was dominated by Democrats, while Republicans dominated the North, pushing for an expansion of federal authority, protective tariffs and legislation to ensure social justice.

By the time of FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s, the parties had flipped. Democrats were the party of big government and social justice, while, by the 1960s, Republicans had evolved into the party of states’ rights and big business.

Nowadays, both parties are confused about what they stand for. The extreme wings of both parties are anti-trade, spewing information that upends more than two centuries’ worth of established trade theory. (Yes, the world has changed since Adam Smith and David Ricardo, but the economic principles underlying trade haven’t changed.)

Once upon a time, species known as “liberal Republican” and “conservative Democrat” walked the Earth. No longer. Through a process of Darwinian natural selection, liberals or progressives now align with the Democratic Party, while conservatives support the GOP.

Many Republicans I know say they are willing to ”roll the dice with Trump.” Alas, they may end up rolling snake eyes.

2. Vote for the lesser of two evils.

This option is better known as “hold your nose and vote for Hillary.” Hillary Clinton has a long history of lying. In fact, her first instinct, when confronted with some tawdry, quasi-illegal activity, is to dissemble.

In 1996, New York Times columnist William Safire called her “a congenital liar,” citing her comments about her cattle-trading windfall, her involvement in the firing of members of the White House Travel Office, and the missing Rose Law Firm files that miraculously reappeared.

Most recently, Clinton’s denials about sending classified information on her private email account housed on her private server were exposed as falsehoods by FBI Director James Comey. Asked by Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” about Comey’s comments, the former secretary of state lied again, claiming Comey had called her statements “truthful.” The Washington Post’s FactChecker awarded Clinton four Pinocchios, a rating reserved for the biggest whoppers, prompting the Atlantic’s Ron Fournier to write an article headlined, “Why Can’t Hillary Clinton Stop Lying?”

There is no doubt that Clinton is the devil we know, which, it is said, may be better than the alternative.

3. Vote your conscience.

Many Americans can’t envision themselves pulling the proverbial lever for either Trump or Clinton, an action that is certain to condemn them to eternal purgatory. Today more Americans identify as independents (42%) than Democrats (29%) or Republicans (26%), according to Gallup.

For us independents, there is the Libertarian Party ticket: former Govs. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. Or, if you lean Green, Dr. Jill Stein may be your candidate. Johnson is polling at 7.4%, and Stein is at 3.2%, according to the RealClearPolitics average, both well below the 15% minimum required to qualify for the presidential debates.

One can argue that a vote for a third-party candidate works to the benefit of Clinton or Trump, but at least it’s a stated preference when compared to Option 4 below.

4. Don’t vote.

The right to vote is explicitly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, after the Civil War, said that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged … on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” That did not prevent some states from introducing discriminatory measures to prevent African Americans from voting.

It wasn’t until 1920, with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, that women got the right to vote. Such hard-won freedoms should not be taken lightly.

Voting is one of the ways citizens express themselves in a democracy. Some view voting as a responsibility of citizenship, in addition to a right.

Sadly, many Americans choose not to exercise this right. Fewer than 62% of eligible Americans voted in the 2012 election. Some 50 million haven’t bothered to register to vote.

That’s too bad. Many of those who are certain to complain the loudest about the election results are no doubt the same folks who will stay home on Nov. 8 instead of making the effort to go to the polls.

Caroline
Baum

Caroline Baum is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about the U.S. economy for three decades.

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